Photos
Cynthia’s last day
Cynthia drove to work for the last time on the morning of Friday, February 27, 2009. Cynthia is now a full-time mother and house wife. We’ve been preparing for this for a year and a half now, with a delay due to concerns about the economy. This is why we down-sized our house and moved within 3 1/2 miles of my workplace. I took the day off in order to throw her a little private welcome home party. We celebrated with our favorite chocolate truffle cake with raspberry sauce. It’s absolutely delicious. I’m sure you’d love it. Matter as fact, the photo of Cynthia jumping for joy is because of the cake, not because it was her last day of work (not that her new job isn’t work).
Christmas 2008
We celebrated Christmas in Laredo this year. Abriana completed her kitchen collection when she got a little kitchen set including stove, sink, oven, and dish wear set. She also got a shopping cart with fake groceries among other things. Santa Claus brought her a little tricycle with assisted steering. Baby James got a bunch of baby related items. An engraved baby bracelet (like the one his big sister got for her first Christmas) and a “My daddy goes to OLLU” t-shirt are two of many gifts he received. Santa Claus brought Baby James little musical flowers. They were a big hit with Abriana when she was a baby.
Abriana on 2008 Presidential Elections
Abriana sits in disbelief as she listens to our Presidential candidates.
My art collection
Last year, when visiting Ohio, I stopped at Vancura Gallery of Fine Art located in Middlefield. There I fell in love with paintings by James Christensen. I purchased “Hold to the Rod, The Iron Rod.” This was the start of my fascination with art and the beginning of my collection of limited edition art giclees (prints).
“Hold to the Rod, the Iron Rod” by James Christensen
After many nights scouring the web for other art that I would find interesting, mainly trying to determine what my style is, I came across works by the artist Kim Wiggins. I purchased “Song of the Valle Vidale” at a local fine art gallery outside of San Antonio and “Sonoma Vinyards” from a seller on ebay.
“Song of the Valle Vidale” by Kim Wiggins
“Sonoma Vinyards” by Kim Wiggings
It turns out that talent runs in the family. I discovered paintings by James Christensen’s daughters, Emily McPhie and Cassandra Christensen Barney. I’ve purchased “One if by Land” by Emily McPhie and am anxiously awaiting “Two if by Sea” and “Three if by Air” to be made available. I currently don’t have anything by Cassandra Christensen Barney.
“One if by Land” by Emily McPhie
Cynthia thinks this one is a little “spooky.” From what I understand, many of Emily’s paintings are inspired by her daughter’s dreams.
During my most recent visit to Ohio, I stopped at Vancura Gallery of Fine Art, where it all began. I picked up an additional limited edition print by James Christensen, “The Listener.” Some people have told me it’s a little too loud and a little too “busy.” I can’t disagree with them more. The vivid colors, extreme detail, and wild variety of characters makes this one of my prize possessions.
“The Listener” by James Christensen
As you can see, my collection is rather small right now. As it grows, I will continue to share it with you.
Ohio Trip September 2007
We visited family in Ohio in September of 2007. Here are some photos of the trip.
It’s a Girl!!!
Cynthia and I welcomed our first child into the world this past Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 at 3:15 pm. Her name is Abriana Isabel Mullett. She weighed 5 lbs 14 ounces at birth and is 19 1/2 inches in length. For those who do not know, my birthday is also September 19th, so this year I received an extra special birthday gift. We delivered at North Central Baptist Hospital here in San Antonio. I’ve included some photos of the facilities.
We’ve officially lost our DINKhood status and have joined the ranks of parenthood. It is an unbelievably surreal experience. As we were leaving the hospital, I couldn’t help but be amazed that they were actually letting us walk out of there with a baby. They didn’t require a parenthood license or even proof that we are capable enough to take care of goldfish.
Anyway, just like we’ve been warned, our sleep has been limited. That’s the main reason it’s taken a couple days to post these pictures. I’ll do my best to update the site with photos of Abriana as she grows. If you didn’t already know, Cynthia has a website as well that she maintains independent of this one. You can visit it at Cynthia Mullett . com. Sometimes she gets her web site updated before I get mine updated.
Memorial Day 2006
Cynthia and I went to South Padre Island for our traditional Memorial Day weekend; however, this year we went the weekend after to avoid the crowded beach. We were met by Cynthia’s entire family for fun on the beach and dinner in the evening.
While there, Cynthia and I had an opportunity to relax and unwind by the pool and drink plenty tropical drinks – Cynthia’s being virgin drinks of course. We even went on a dolphin watching trip. The most surprising thing about our little excursion out to the Gulf to see dolphins was the tour bus of people that joined us. It’s not often you see Amish away from their home, but it’s even more rare to see an entire tour bus of them from Ohio all the way down in the southern most tip of Texas on the Gulf.
Before we left, we climbed to the top of the light tower in Port Isabelle. There is a winding staircase on the inside wall of the light tower that takes you all the way up to the “Widow’s walk.” Cynthia almost experienced full muscle failure on the way down while I was strangling the handrail, as I was confident that I was going to plunge to my death. I’m glad we did it, but I have no need to ever do it again.
Home Improvement Update
Several months have passed, and we’ve finally seen a lot of progress on the house. I was able to finish the kitchen and utility room flooring with a great deal of help from Jeremy Carter. We installed about 550 sq. ft. of ceramic tile. Installing tile is extremely difficult and to put it simply; it sucks! I have no idea how people can do it for a living. Only a good friend would help with something so unpleasant. I’ve also included some before, during, and after pictures of the utility room as well.
Our cabinetry has been installed, we still have some trim work and hardware left to install, but it’s looking pretty good. The granite counter top and back splash, and all kitchen appliances are in. The sink has been installed and all the plumbing is done. After 2 years without, we finally have a fully functioning kitchen!
We decided to go with Kraft Maid cabinetry as I have a lot of pride in the town and people in which Kraft Maid is located.
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Along the way, our hot water heater gave out and we replaced it with a tankless water heater. It takes a little longer for the hot water to reach the faucet, but once it does, the water remains hot for as long as you want it. |
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This is Cynthia cooking the very first meal in the new kitchen. Notice the big smile on her face – no more hot plates. Also, you can see the French doors in the background. We replaced the large window that was there with glass French doors and placed a bar (left) where the old door was. |
Vacation, December 2005
Cynthia and I spent a week at Holly Lake just reading, sitting in front of the fireplace, and drinking wine. I read two books from the Wess’har Wars series by Karen Traviss and Cynthia made Christmas cards. We played some board games, air hockey, and tried our luck at archery. It was a very relaxing week; perfect to unwind and prepare for our trip to Las Vegas the following week.
The following week we went to Las Vegas. First we stayed with our friends Jeremy & Lisa, and then we checked into the Bellagio . While in Vegas Cynthia and I got massages, ate at fine restaurants, had plenty of room service, and saw a couple shows. We saw Jubilee at Bally’s and Cirque du Soleil’s Ka at the MGM Grand. Jubilee is the traditional Vegas show featuring show girls with the big feathers. Ka is another amazing Cirque du Soleil show of acrobatics, art, music, and technology combined to deliver a sensational evening of entertainment. If you ever make it to Vegas, or ever have an opportunity to catch any Cirque du Soleil shows, I highly suggest it. Last time we were in Vegas we saw Mystere, that too was equally amazing.
Progress on the fireplace
This past weekend my wife and I finally tiled our fireplace surround. It took 7 hours straight on Saturday to tile it and about the same on Sunday to grout it. My entire body is still aching from this back-breaking labor, and I still cannot clean the black grout stain off my skin and under my nails. Anyway, we used 1×2 mosaics for the top and bottom, and I cut 12×12 tiles down to 3×3 and 3×6 inch pieces to do the platform. For anyone interested, the platform was done in a “windmill” pattern and top and bottom would be considered an “alternating” pattern. We still have to give it one more good cleaning with a light acid wash and then seal it with a stone sealer.
We ordered the mantle cap on Monday, so hopefully we get it a couple weeks before Christmas. Once that is installed, we are going to prime it and the walls, paint, and put up the trim.
Sealy TrueForm
My wife and I recently purchased a new bed. We have been looking at the TempurPedic mattress for a long time and were convinced it was what we needed. After doing a lot of research and trying out many competitors to the “Swedish Sleep System,” we decided to buy the Sealy Posturepedic Trueform. Sealy’s version of the visco elastic (memory foam) bed is an inch thicker, a little softer, has better constructed box frames, a cashmere velour cover, and is about $400 less expensive than TempurPedic.
We’ve been sleeping on our new bed for about 2 – 3 weeks now, but I still haven’t seen the magic that is promised when sleeping on a memory foam mattress. I still toss and turn, I still can’t get comfortable, the mattress does sleep a little warm, and it feels hard. The foam is supposed to soften with body heat, but it doesn’t feel like it wants to give.
I’m gonna give it another couple weeks or so, then maybe I’ll grow use to it, or I’ll replace it for a good traditional bed. I really did get a good night sleep when I stayed at the Cleveland Airport Sheraton last year. Maybe I should see what mattresses they use in their rooms.
Anyway, like everything else, I’ve posted pictures of our new bed.
Spy Gekko
Here I am sitting at my desk trying to get a few thing done when I noticed someone watching me through the window. Those bastards don’t think I know what they are up to!
Hardwood Complete
The hardwood flooring is complete. We just need to put the base boards on and all the rooms will be done. All that’s left now is completing the fireplace (I picked up the Indian Rajah Slate today for the fireplace base and the kitchen flooring and backsplash), kitchen, all bathrooms starting with the guest bathroom, garage, landscaping, and furniture. So, I guess we still have a long list of things to do.
Lapacho/Brazilian Walnut flooring
The moment we have been waiting for has finally arrived. The new hardwood flooring is finally being installed in the rest of the house. We picked this wood up from Lumber Liquidators just like the bamboo. I just love the variation in colors this exotic hardwood flooring offers. So far, the installers have been working for two days. These photos show you the progress that has been made to this point in time.
Fireplace Calamity
We were preparing to get our Brazilian Walnut flooring installed, so we had our usual contractor get a mason to build us a stacked stone fireplace surround to replace the one that I demolished over a year ago. This way the flooring guy can work around it as apposed to trying to build a fireplace surround inside a void left by the flooring guy. Anyway, I wanted it to be stacked stone with no visible grout, coming straight out about a foot then curve around to the other side, and not to extend more than two feet from the fireplace. Well, this is where it was after the first night.
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You can see that this thing is a mammoth. It extends almost three full feet from the fireplace and is almost a perfect semi circle. Not to mention that it is not stacked stone; it is cut and set. The problem with cutting and setting the stone is:
- Saw blade cut marks are visible in the front of the stone
- The color and appeal of the stone was cut off
- Half inch to three-quarter inch grout lines are obvious
As you probably guessed, I had it torn down and gave my contractor a design to complete himself. Here is where it’s at. Big improvement isn’t it?
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I’ll post more pictures once the project is complete.
End of summer 2005
We had a small family gathering to usher out the summer and welcome the fall. Cynthia’s entire family was in attendance. We barbecued and took advantage of our redneck swimming pool.
Anyone want to buy a redneck swimming pool?
GD AIS Company Picnic 2005
This past weekend I attended the General Dynamics AIS company summer picnic. It was held at Blanco State Park in Blanco, Texas, about 45-50 miles North of 1604 on 281. It’s a pretty nice place to camp and swim, but it comes with a steep price of $3.00 per person to enter. What happened to the old days when it was $3.00 per vehicle to enter the state parks? Anyway, I’m posting the photos I took during the company picnic for your enjoyment. Also, you can download all the photos here in a zipped file.
Ohio Trip July 2005
Cynthia and I spent the 4th of July weekend in Ohio visiting my family. We stayed in the Manor at Punderson State Park. While there, I got a round of golf in with my dad and two brothers. I grew up about Ľ mile from Grandview Golf Course, but oddly enough, this was only my second time I’ve ever golfed. I spent many summer nights when I was a kid fishing golf balls out of the ponds on that golf course. We would clean the golf balls, load them into egg cartons, and sell them to anyone that was interested.
I also enjoyed a nice dinner at The Rain Tree in downtown Chagrin Falls with my sister Patti. Afterwards, Patti, Cynthia, and I went to the local movie theater to watch War of the Worlds. It was a good movie. All in all, it was a real nice day.
Cynthia and I really just relaxed more than anything. We got a chance to get away for a couple days and visit family. We wrapped up the weekend with a 4th of July barbeque at my brother Mike’s house. My brother Richard made his nationally famous barbeque ribs.
I’ve posted all the photos that I was able to take while I was there. Have a gander and meet some of my family.
Three bedrooms done
Other than furniture, our three spare bedrooms are finally complete. You can probably tell we are going with an Asian theme in our guest bedroom. It was originally supposed to have a Japanese influence, but it rapidly became mainly Chinese with some hints of Japanese and Korean.
If you are looking for someone locally to do some work around the house, I highly recommend these two gentlemen:
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Make Over Renovations, Etc.
- Dry wall
- Paint
- Trim
Jesse Torres
Moretc.com
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RGA Floors Company
- Wood flooring installation
Roberto Garcia
(210) 269-5260
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